Streaming apps ‘used to exploit children aged eight’

0 Have your say Children as young as eight are being sexually exploited online, Barnardo’s the UK’s largest children’s charity, has revealed. The popularity of live streaming services like TikTok is contributing to younger children needing to access specialist help after being exploited online, the charity says. Children using streaming services can be contacted by predators using the comments function on live videos, the charity warns. In previous years Barnardo’s youngest child sexual exploitation service users were aged ten. Broadcasting videos live over the internet has become very popular among children and young people. A survey by YouGov for Barnardo’s in 2018 found 57 per cent of 12-year-olds and more than one in four children aged ten (28 per cent) admitted live streaming content over the internet using apps meant for people over the age of 13. Almost a quarter of ten to 16-year-olds (24 per cent) said that they or a friend regretted posting live content on apps and websites. The warning comes amid growing concerns about the online safety of children. Last month, the father of a 14-year-old girl, Molly Russell, who took her own life, said Instagram “helped kill my daughter” after she viewed material on the social media site linked to anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide. Yesterday Digital Secretary Jeremy Wright said he will write to Tinder and Grindr asking what measures they have in place to keep children safe after an investigation found youngsters had been sexually exploited after evading age checks on the dating… [Read full story]